The village of Brookfield is pondering what to do with the Brookfield Bowl, which is under a demolition order, approved by a Cook County judge last August.
The village has dragged its feet on obtaining bids for the demolition of the building at 3415 Maple Ave., which is owned by Brookfield resident Tim Cook. But in December, the village finally sought estimates for the work and received six responses.
The low estimate came from Markham-based KLF Excavating, which submitted a bid of $58,326.91 to demolish the bowling alley and remove the concrete slab it stands on. If the village decides to simply level the building and leave the slab intact the demolition would cost $38,339.91.
The village board has not publicly discussed what they are planning to do. However, they did meet in executive session on Jan. 9 and likely explored its options.
According to Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral, who is also the director of building and planning, the board has a couple of choices. It can move ahead with demolition and then place a lien on the property in anticipation of claiming it, or it could report back to the court that the village has sought bids, present those bids to the court and then leave the matter up to the judge to decide what to do next.
In the meantime, the Brookfield Bowl remains shuttered. The village closed the building down for good in mid-February 2011 after Cook failed to begin work to repair a failed rood truss.
The village discovered the failed truss in September 2010 during a routine fire inspection, when a ceiling tile came loose and fell on a firefighter. That event led to Cook shutting down the bowling alley and installing wooden posts, which still support the building.
Cook later was allowed to re-open the bar area of the building. But after failing to move ahead with repairs to the truss, which would have cost more than $100,000 and with his insurance company covering less than a quarter of the total claim, Brookfield filed suit in March 2011 to seek a demolition order from the court.
-Bob Uphues
